Staff Solutions Engineer - AI Specialist

Kong; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Kong is seeking a Staff Solutions Engineer to serve as a trusted technical advisor for transforming enterprises into secure, scalable API ecosystems while navigating the agentic AI era.

You will own complex, multi-stakeholder deals, map customer requirements to Kong solutions, validate technical feasibility, and collaborate across product and engineering to drive customer success and governance initiatives.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software or solutions engineering experience in SaaS, open source, or enterprise software.
• Proven track record owning complex, enterprise-level deals with multiple technical and executive stakeholders.
• Experience mentoring or coaching other SEs or technical team members.
• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud-native platforms.
• Hands-on experience with REST and GraphQL APIs, CI/CD pipelines, and API security patterns (OAuth2, OIDC, mTLS).

Responsibilities

• Support field sales in helping customers understand the value of Kong's API and AI platform.
• Conduct discovery conversations to map requirements to Kong solutions.
• Lead technical validation and stakeholder alignment through POCs and evaluations.
• Create technical documentation for DevOps, implementations, and services engagements.
• Lead API Management and AI Governance evaluations including MCP governance and shadow AI detection.
• Deliver demonstrations of Kong’s API/AI capabilities and run Technicall Feasibility Workshops.
• Own the technical strategy for complex, multi-stakeholder enterprise deals from qualification through close.
• Mentor junior SEs on technical skills, discovery methods, and deal strategy.
• Influence product direction by feedback from customers and market signals.

Skills

Enterprise deals

Mentoring SEs

REST & GraphQL APIs

CI/CD pipelines

AI tooling

Strategic deal leadership

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Cloud-native platforms

OAuth2 / OIDC / mTLS

Job description

About the Role:

Are you ready to sit at the epicenter of the API and AI connectivity revolution? As a Staff Solutions Engineer at Kong, you won't just be selling a platform - you'll be a trusted technical advisor helping the world's most innovative enterprises architect secure, scalable API ecosystems while navigating the transition into the agentic AI era.

What you’ll be doing:

• Support field sales in helping customers understand the value of the Kong API and AI connectivity platform.
• Conduct discovery conversations to understand customer requirements and map them to Kong solutions, from initial product reviews through to production.
• Support POCs throughout the entire evaluation process, owning technical validation and stakeholder alignment.
• Ensure customer satisfaction across your assigned set of accounts.
• Collaborate with support, product, and engineering teams to advocate for customer needs.
• Create technical documentation for DevOps, implementations, and services engagements.
• Lead and support API Management and AI Goverance evaluations, including scoping API/AI use cases, LLM traffic management, and governance requirements.
• Deliver demonstrations of Kong’s API AI governance and agentic connectivity capabilities, including Model Context Protocol (MCP) governance, semantic caching, prompt guardrails, and shadow AI detection.
• Run API AI-focused Technical Feasibility Workshops (TFWs) to validate Kong’s fit for modern and/or AI/agentic architectures.
• Own the technical strategy for complex, multi-stakeholder enterprise deals from qualification through close.
• Mentor and coach junior SEs on technical skills, discovery methods, and deal strategy.
• Drive thought leadership by authoring technical blogs, hosting webinars, speaking at industry events and conferences such as AWS re:Invent, Google Next, API AI summit, and regional events.
• Influence product direction by synthesizing customer feedback and market signals into actionable input for the product team.
• And any additional tasks required by manager.

What you’ll bring:

• 7+ years of software engineering and/or solutions engineering experience at a SaaS, open source, or enterprise software company.
• Proven track record owning complex, enterprise-level deals with multiple technical and executive stakeholders.
• Experience mentoring or coaching other SEs or technical team members.
• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud-native platforms.
• Experience with REST and GraphQL APIs, CI/CD pipelines, and API security patterns (OAuth2, OIDC, mTLS).
• Hands-on experience with AI-assisted development tooling - Claud